back in to the kitchen

It seems that it is the new thing, get women back in to the kitchen. Its not so much that we aren't in the kitchen it is more that our time is so valuable that we find we have less time to prepare food, mix kids that won't eat what we eat and week old limp food and it is not surprising that takeaways are becoming more of a norm in New Zealand.

But it needn't be that way. First of reclaim your kitchen. That's right, get anything that shouldn't be on the kitchen bench off, don't just move it to another place to create another pile to tidy later - put it away when it leaves the bench. Next make sure all the dishes are clean and put away. Empty rubbish bins and compost bowls.

Okay you are now starting with a clean slate, will not yet.  Open the fridge and check items with used-by-dates, if they are over throw them out. Limp food or those with a colony of bacteria happily growing on them need to be thrown away too. Make sure you clean your fridge and don't forget the vegetable bins. The fridge should smell pleasant when you open it. If you smell fish or other strong odours make sure these foods are in a sealed container, these smells will go right the rest of the food.

Okay enough on that for the moment. If you really don't know how to cook and lets face it some of us haven't had a mum who taught us to cook, cooking lessons are a great thing to try. I am not talking about the ones where you cook a banquet for ten. There are cooking class around which teach you the basics, try them out - if you like wine add a wine class to your list.

Another important thing is to invest in good cookware. The problem with cheap cookware like pots, is that cheap normally means that the pot or frying pan does not have a heavy base and therefore heat will not be transferred evenly - i.e. the outside of the pan will be undercooked while the inside will be overcooked. Heavy based pans transmit heat evening.

Make sure your knives are sharp, if you don't have a good set of kitchen knives these are worth investing in. Make sure you have them sharpen regularly. A good sharp knife should slice through food, not drag it along its blade.

Invest in some good children cookbooks if you are not confident cooking, these have simple recipes and easy to follow instruction, Family Circle and Women's Weekly have some good cooking books. Try some of our recipes, ours are all family-friendly and designed to be quick, simple and easy.

Remember, fresh is best and in food this is very important - fresh food is full of vitamins and minerals, it taste better, has better texture and cooks better. Always try and buy the freshest food you can, buy smaller quantities so that it doesn't loose its freshness before you get round to eating it.

I hope you join me over the next few issues and begin to enjoy cooking for yourself and your family. Making your kitchen your domain starts by understanding it and so I am going to go over a lot of basic things about your kitchen. Thing you will learn in the next few issues:

• What foods to store in the freezer and refrigerator and for how long

• Basic food safety

• How long should food last from packet spices to canned and bottled products

• What utensils should you have in your kitchen

• What sort of dishes, cutlery and glasses you should have and how to put these together for a special dinner.

• How to set a table properly

• What food should look like and what it looks like when its old.